Macarons 2018

I tried to up the macaron game by making nut-free macarons. Michael and his sister are both allergic to nuts so this time I used pumpkin seed meal and flax seed meal.

Unfortunately, all I could find was whole pumpkin seeds so I ended up chopping them up by hand to make the meal. In the future I definitely need to invest in a food processor.

I used the same general ratio as my previous recipes but reduced the amount of dry ingredients (1 part egg white, 1.4 parts seed meal, 1.4 parts powdered sugar, 0.5 parts granulated sugar). I also attempted a Swiss meringue buttercream filling, which started off as a disaster. I whipped the egg whites to stiff peaks but as soon as I added the butter, it turned into a liquid-y chunky mess. Several online sources claimed that it could still be saved but at that point it was past midnight and I was tired. 

Today, I followed a recipe more religiously, based off this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uLQ3-I2qgQ. I used about 1.5 egg whites (one from a large egg, one from a medium egg) and 3/4 cup sugar (a little less in reality...it looked like a crap ton of sugar). I whisked the egg white and sugar mixture over a little pot of lightly simmering water and even checked to make sure all the sugar was dissolved. Then I started whipping. For some reason, it never reached a stiff peak stage and kind of just turned into a weird consistency that was thick yet didn't hold its shape completely. I was like "fuck it" and ended up mixing in the room-temperature butter anyway. It seemed to help it stiffen up, actually. Then I turned up the speed on my mixer, and that REALLY helped it stiffen up to a true frosting consistency -- fluffy, airy. I didn't really understand how or why it happened but I'll take it. I flavored half of it with strawberry preserves and the other half with crushed freeze-dried mango. Both taste pretty good. The strawberry one in particular tasted like strawberry ice cream or a strawberry milkshake.

In the future, I'll say 1 egg white worth of macarons should go with 1 egg white worth of Swiss meringue buttercream.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

1.5 egg whites

3/4 cup sugar

1 stick of butter (ROOM TEMPERATURE!! Cut into chunks)

1. Heat a small amount of water in a small saucepan to simmering.

2. Put egg whites and sugar into a heat safe bowl. Place bowl on top of simmering saucepan and whisk the egg whites and sugar together until you feel no more grains of sugar with your fingers.

3. Take the bowl off and beat the egg whites until stiff peak (or at the very least, very thick). This may take a while, up to 10 minutes.

4. While on low speed, beat in one chunk of butter at a time.

5. When all the butter is incorporated, check texture of the buttercream. If it's not stiff enough, beat the mixture for a few seconds on high speed.

6. Add flavorings as desired, e.g. strawberry preserves. Use a spatula to mix in the ingredients. 

Note: This makes a decent amount of frosting, probably enough for 12 cupcakes. I had about double the amount I needed to fill maybe 15 macarons.

My Macaron Journey

August 28, 2012

Yesterday, I tried my hand at making macarons, those elusive French cookie sandwiches that people are crazy over. People, including me. Surprisingly, they didn't come out so bad! The first batch was undercooked, I think, even though the outside shell was hard. There were also barely any feet.

The pink ones were from my first batch. Flat footed  and soggy on the inside :(

So I think I may have overmixed the batter, not let the cookies cook long enough, and may have had the oven temperature too high. For my second batch, I tried to pipe them when the mixture was thicker. I also let the skins set this time. I set my oven 15 degrees lower and cooked them for about double the time, resisting the urge to check. I also put the second tray of the batch on the middle rack, for a gentler cooking (although one website said to put it either on top or bottom to ensure more even cooking). Nonetheless, the second batch turned out nicely. Taller feet, less soggy in the middle, no major cracks. Hurray!

I filled them with a dark/semisweet chocolate ganache. Sadly, I still have a shit ton of ganache that I don't know what to do with. Also the almond meal cost a shitload. Here's "my" recipe.

Macarons

1/2 cup almond meal

1 cup confectioner's sugar

2 egg whites

5 tbsp. granulated sugar

Directions:

1. Sift the almond meal and confectioner's sugar into any old bowl. I used a plastic one. Discard the big pieces of almond meal and add a little more from the bag. Next time I think I'll use 1-2 tablespoons more meal.
2. Start whipping the egg whites in a metal bowl at a low-medium speed. When the whites are frothy with no liquid egg left (but still runny), slowly add in the granulated sugar, while continuing the whipping.
3. Whip the egg whites for 3 minutes at medium-high speed.
4. Whip the egg whites for 3 minutes (or more) at high speed, until it's at stiff peak stage (kinda).
5. Add in food coloring or other flavorings. I used a couple drops of liquid food coloring and it seemed fine.
6. Whip at high speed until the color is incorporated and the meringue is stiff.
7. Add half the dry ingredients to the meringue and fold it in until its mostly incorporated. Then add the rest of the dry ingredients.
8. Macaronnage: Fold the batter over and over until the dry ingredients are fully incorporated. Keep folding to deflate the egg whites until the batter reaches a "molten" consistency. I think I'll stop right before that point, since the batter deflates more when I pipe it.
9. Take a Ziploc bag and fill it with half the batter. Cut off a quarter inch section from a corner. I always want to cut bigger, so cut on the small side! Pipe 1 and a half inch circles on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. MUST BE PARCHMENT PAPER.
10. When all the batter is piped out, go preheat the oven to 285 degrees. This is for my personal oven, and I might lower it even to 275. Most recipes call for 300 degrees. The skins can start to form on the macaron shells while the oven heats up.
11. Wait until skins form. Should take about 15 minutes? Then put a tray into the middle rack.
12. Bake for 15 minutes. Don't open the oven to check. Just trust it. Okay, maybe check around 13 minutes. It's bad to overbake. DON'T LET THE SHELLS BROWN.

Chocolate Ganache

12 oz. chocolate

1/2 cup heavy cream

Directions:

1. Break off chocolate in a heat safe bowl. 
2. Heat cream in a pot until it just starts to boil. Pour the cream into the chocolate bowl.
3. Stir the mixture until its smooth and glossy. It should look like chocolate frosting after cooling. 

Note: This makes, like, a SHITLOAD of ganache. I still have most of it after filling like 30 macarons. Next time I'll quarter the recipe or something.

Pretty :)

Here was the basis for the macaron recipe:  http://www.yoo-eatz.com/Earl-Grey-Macarons-Honey-Buttercream-Filling-Recipe-15579665 

Maybe I'll get fancier if I ever get a digital baking scale.

UPDATE: It's been three days of sitting in the fridge for the macarons. And it's true, they do get better with age. The texture is better, the ganache isn't going everywhere, and overall they're just more pleasant. However, my first batch still has a "wet" texture on the inside:

It's hard to tell, but the meringue-y part is soggy.

My second batch was more cooked, but the volume was half air:

Holy hollow shell

Overall, next time I must cook these longer. More than 15 minutes, so the meringue can cook through fully and support itself so it doesn't collapse like in my second batch.

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August 31, 2012

Ha, I tried making my macarons fancier this week. Here is what I did.

First, I drove to Whole Foods and bought a bag of freeze-dried blueberries. I crush that into a fine powder. Followed my macaron recipe, and added the blueberry powder along with the dried ingredients. The result? NO FEET. CRACKED TOPS GALORE. I managed to only make a single, semi-presentable macaron in two batches. This was on Friday.

The good news is that they taste really good, despite the appearance. I guess I just can't win in both departments. The first batch, I filled with just the lemon curd. The second batch, I used the lemon cream cheese filling. I found the macarons to be less heavy and overly sweet this way, since the sourness of the lemon and cream cheese helped to cut through the sugar. Sigh. I'm macaron pooped.

Microwave Lemon Curd (Makes about a cup?)
1 egg
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 lemon (zest, 1/4 cup and 1 tbsp. juice)
2 and 1/3 ish tbsp. butter

Directions:

1. Melt the butter in a microwave safe bowl.
2. Zest the whole lemon. Then cut it in half and squeeze out 1/4 cup and 1 tbsp. lemon juice. It should use the entire lemon up. Add to the butter bowl.
3. Whisk together the egg and sugar until they're well incorporated. Mix in the butter and lemon mixture.
4. Microwave the bowl for 1 minute, take out and stir well, microwave again for about 30 seconds, take back out.
5. Sieve the mixture to remove the cooked pieces of egg. Most of the zest is removed too, oops.
6. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate the curd.

First batch with just lemon curd

They're so sad :(

Texture is actually chewy this time. But....damn.

Lemon Curd Cream Cheese Frosting (My own creation)

Lemon curd

1/4 cup cream cheese (I think? It was half a stick, and an 8 oz package comes with 2 sticks, so 2 oz?)

1.7 tbsp. butter (I dunno. Half the cream cheese amount)

1. Let cream cheese and butter come to room temperature. Actually let them come to room temperature. 
2. Cream them together using a fork. Add in half the lemon curd mixture from before. Probably a 4 ish tablespoons.
3. Mix thoroughly. It should come out nicely.

Sob. So cracked. AND FEETLESS

The only presentable one with hints of feet and no cracks

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March 16, 2014

I used a Martha Stewart magazine ratio of ingredients but sort of halved it (not exact at all!) I also did not sift the ingredients very well. In fact, I only really sifted the almond meal....whoops. And I didn't even measure the weight of the egg white.

1 egg white (weight unknown), room temperature, unaged (straight from one of the cartons sitting on the counter)
~55 g confectioner's sugar
~36 g almond meal
~23 g granulated sugar
A Costco green tea bag
~1 tsp matcha powder

Oven: Preheated to 315 degrees C, turned down to 305 degrees after shells were put in.

I whipped the egg whites with granulated sugar added pretty early on, in an unchilled metal bowl. It took about 10 minutes in total, I think. I did about 2 minutes on low, 2 minutes on medium, 2 on second highest, and 4 minutes on the highest setting. I added dry ingredients to egg instead of the other way around. I let a skin sort of form by letting it sit for about 15 minutes. I used a single sheet of parchment paper on the bigger, cleaner cookie sheet. The oven rack was near the bottom (second to lowest, I think). I let it cook for around 8-9 minutes, checking constantly. They were slightly browned, but I think it was okay.

For the filling, I used a matcha white chocolate ganache. Vivian and Ivy made this, and they kind of screwed up, so I have no idea what the proper ratio is supposed to be.

ANYWAY. These were good. Maybe because the ganache was good, but I think the texture of the shells was pretty good too. Will try again soon.

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December 6, 2014

I want to make macarons to give to the Kwa family when I visit, so I'm trying to perfect my recipe. From looking at my past tries on this blog, I've concluded that I need to add more dry ingredients so the consistency turns out more cakey and less mushy/sticky. Last night, I tried a new ratio of ingredients that was basically 1 part egg white, 1.5 parts almond meal, 1.5 parts powdered sugar, and 0.5 parts granulated sugar. Most other recipes use about double the amount of powdered sugar as almond meal, which is just...ugh.

Since I didn't buy heavy cream, I decided to fudge together a buttercream....it turned out okay. Here were my exact measurements and actions:

Macaron

39 g egg white (from one egg)

20 g granulated sugar

57 g powdered sugar

57 g almond meal

~1 tsp matcha powder

~1 Costco green tea bag, big pieces reserved

I whipped the egg white in an unchilled metal bowl after "aging" for maybe 10-20 minutes (basically after I prepared all my other ingredients). I added half the granulated sugar after the egg white turned slightly frothy, then added the second half when it was between soft and stiff peaks. I whipped on the lowest speed for about 2 minutes, then medium for 2 minutes, then second medium for 2 minutes, and the high speed for about 3 minutes. Then I poured dry ingredients (all sieved together, just once) into the egg whites and did macaronage until it was the right consistency. I know what to look for. Then I put the batter into a Ziploc bag and piped out circles onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. The usual.

I preheated the oven to 315 degrees, waited maybe 10-15 minutes for a premature skin to form on the cookies, then got impatient and stuck them in the oven, top middle rack. I turned it down to 305 degrees. After about 8 minutes, I checked the cookies, but they still seemed soft. After checking and closing several times, I finally took them out after around 15 minutes but they were still pretty soft and really delicate. After they cooled enough to keep their shape, I carefully peeled them off the parchment paper and then placed them upside down.

Matcha Buttercream

~3 tsp unsalted butter

~3/4 tsp powdered sugar

~1/2 tsp matcha powder

A dash of vanilla extract

I let the butter sit at room temperature for maybe half an hour before I got impatient and started mashing it up with a fork. I added in the sugar, matcha, and vanilla after the butter got somewhat mushy, then mixed more with a fork until it was pretty homogeneous. I put the mixture into the unused corner of the Ziploc bag and piped it out onto the macaron shells, then put them into the fridge.

After letting the macarons sit in the fridge overnight, I think they got a lot better. They're holding their shape, the butter doesn't taste greasy (although it probably needs more vanilla to cut out the butter taste), and the texture is just the right amount of firm and chewy. 

Next time, I think I'll add less dry ingredients, maybe 1.35 or 1.4 parts each of almond meal and powdered sugar, to 1 part egg white. That way, it may be able to achieve a harder outside shell. Maybe cook longer as well. The shell from yesterday was super thin and delicate....

Anyway, I think these turned out really good! Not as cloyingly sweet as before.

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Miscellaneous Photos (when I didn't blog about it)

Filled with Nutella (12/15/12)

Chocolate (12/20/12) - Complete fail, too hard

Another fail (12/20/12) - no feet and hollow

Dulce de leche (3/20/13)

Dulce de leche (3/20/13)

Candy cane (with peppermint filling, rolled in crush candy canes), chocolate and vanilla, and green tea (winter break 2014)

Candy cane (with peppermint filling, rolled in crush candy canes), chocolate and vanilla, and green tea (winter break 2014)

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Conclusions

I think my final recipe will be thus:

Ingredients
1 part egg white
0.5 part granulated sugar
1.5 parts almond meal
1.5 parts powdered sugar
1-1.5 tsp for each part egg white of anything else (e.g. matcha, cocoa powder, etc..)

Directions
Combine ingredients and make batter as normal. Perform macaronage until batter is more on the thick side, but still "molten." Pipe onto parchment paper lined cookie sheet, slam on a counter to get rid of air bubbles, and allow a skin to fully form. The shells should smooth out on their own. Preheat oven to 315 degrees F in the mean time. Put cookie sheet into oven's top middle rack and let bake for a minute, then turn oven down to 305 degrees. Bake as long as needed (maybe 10-15 minutes).

Bronze-y Makeup Look

This was one of my first major looks using the Lorac Pro Palette. I copied this off some Japanese girl's YouTube tutorial, which I can no longer find.

• Eyeshadow: Lorac Pro primer, then Garnet on the outside third, Gold/Lt. Bronze on the middle third, and Nude on the inner third; lower eyelash line was smoked out using Deep Purple
• Eyeliner: curvy wing, L'Oreal Infallible Lacquer Liner in Blackest Black; lower lash line used Ulta Kohl Black Eyeliner
• Brows: Cover Girl Brow & Eye Makers in Midnight Black (typical black pencil)
• Lashes: Cover Girl Volume Express Mascara
• Lips: Revlon Lip Butter in Pink Truffle (a nice brown-toned pink, good MLBB but also darker)
• Face: attempted to use Lorac CC Cream, didn't really see a difference

I'm still trying to figure out how to make my makeup look...not awkward. I can tell from these photos that I didn't know how to make my eyeshadow complement the bone structure around my eyes. I was doing what other people did, but it doesn't follow my eye shape very well. Same deal with the curvy wing.

Unflattering, but really shows the sparkle...

Calligraphy

I caved and bought calligraphy pens from Jetpens.com during fall term. I have the Pilot Parallel 4.3 mm and 6.0 mm. They are pretty easy to use and this was my first hardcore session practicing capital letters (blackletter style).

This was done using the 4.3 mm pen.